We play and learn a little more every day.

It's May already and Winter is definitely here! As the rain sets in we'll spend more time indoors living and learning through play. Although I tried to set up a flexible routine to follow during our week it seems we never really stick to it (even if it's flexible!) Something always comes up to change it. So I end up writing out a weekly planner on my: "What's on this Week?" board and we take each week at a time adding in or taking away activities as the week progresses.

Everyone in the family now has an outlet for exercise-Ray is finally making it back to gym. Michael is still enjoying Playball. Jenna's ballet teacher eventually made it back from the U.K, so ballet started again this week. And there was an opening for Jen at a gymnastics class once a week so she has just started gymnastics. So cute to see her tackling the new apparatus! She loved the first lesson. "Mommy, I never want to stop gymnastics! I love it!"

And mom? Mom, has actually managed to loose a few centimeters from doing Pilates! Only problem...... WINTER FOOD!!!!

Our creative juices have been flowing too! I've continued with pottery. We've been working on one project mainly and I will soon be finished my first jug. I've discovered that I'm more of a practical girl though. Although I'm making things which are useful and pottery is relaxing, my practical side is crying out for more product and less time making one item! So I'm thinking of finding a sewing class. I've always wanted help with this skill and I'd really like to make things for our home.

The best news is: Ray has started painting again! After a five year drought he picked up his brushes and is experimenting with new ideas. This was all brought on by a need for something inspiring for his website he has been working very hard on for the last year. It's a site aimed at beginner artists wanting to use oil paints. Check it out if you're interested: Simply Oil Painting.( no longer exists)

And the children? Well they've been busy creating too!

Lots of Lego building with Dad's old Space Lego.

Turning cats into princes.....

because every Princess needs a faithful companion-and believe me THIS one is a very loyal one! He humbly accepts all orders from his princess.

Turning Dad into a cowboy at story time.

Lots of playdough fun.....

I just love these roses-especially the smiling one!

And when the creative work is done we also need to get rid of our energy between the rain fall. So a high swing-but not too high mom-is often asked for!

Rainy days mean time for puzzles. Michael is just starting to feel confident to tackle more challenging puzzles with my help. But when he wants to do it on his own these old favourites are hauled out.

Jenna is enjoying playing with Brainy Blocks-I found this box for R5,00 at a second hand shop! What a bargain! She's enjoying the challenge of discovering how to fill the spaces with the shapes so that she makes a picture on the card. Another new game I've introduced to her is a tangram. They're both great geometry foundation builders. The best way to learn: through a game!

And of course there's always time for reading books! Especially when you had planned to get outside for a walk and all of a sudden it starts raining again! We still get out in the fresh air as much as possible, even if it's only for a ride in the road.

We just bundle up and head on out-nothing like a fresh wind to revive a weary spirit! I hope you're not letting Winter stop you from living and learning together!

Group outing to Rondevlei Nature Reserve.

Our home school group headed out to Rondevlei Nature Reserve for our outing this term. It was a rainy, cold day but nothing could dampen the spirits of our little enthusiastic nature lovers!

At the reserve they have an indoor area which houses a museum, aquarium and presentation room. They have a very interesting display of birds and wildlife from the area. Our children were most impressed and affected by the hazards to the wild animals and the role us humans play in the destruction of wildlife. To take their mind off these sad happenings though, there are also a few live specimens to view.

Michael asked recently if we could find a chameleon in the area where we live. Sadly there aren't many of these interesting little creatures around anymore. But he was delighted to spot a "macheleon" hiding in the reeds in one of the "cages". I know this is a blurry picture, but I had to post it just for him!

To Jenna's delight there were also a few snakes around. I'm not a snake lover, I can look, but won't touch. Jenna is desperate to visit a snake a park which is just up the road from us and I've been putting it off for a while. Well, I think I can go now-they're not so scary when they're behind glass. Just don't expect me to handle one!

The aquarium has fish which would commonly be found in the vlei (marshy lake-like area) which fills up most of the reserve's area.

The one animal which we would all have loved to have seen, but didn't, was the hippo. There are seven hippo's living at the reserve. But as they are nocturnal all we got a glimpse of were these very large skull bones.

And these very large teeth! Amazingly this creature is only a grass eater-those teeth are used purely for defense and can grow up to 30cm long in an adult male!

Because of the rainy weather we also missed out on seeing the abundant bird life which lives there. But the children learnt a lot about different types of beaks and feet and how the birds use them to catch their meals or move around.

After watching a video and hearing about the wildlife we went on a tour of the museum with our very patient (these home schoolers ask loads of questions!) and informative guide. Then we headed out into the rain to see if we could find a hippo or any of the birds she had taught us about.

To be honest with you I spent more time trying to dodge the puddles and didn't see much as we walked along between the high reeds. But the children had great fun splashing in puddles and running along to the next bird watching hide-out.

The views from the hideouts were awesome, but alas we still didn't spot much wildlife.

Before we returned to the museum area to attempt to find some shelter a few brave children (and moms) ventured up to the top of a very tall lookout tower. Getting to the top was exciting. But standing in the open wind and rain at the top and trying to keep excited little bodies in some kind of order while they all tried to stand in line to look out the telescope, was a little too much for this mom! I tried to make a hasty retreat only to discover that the climb down the stairs was more hair raising than standing on top of the tower in the cold rain and wind! Be warned, it's steep! Exciting for my adventure boy but challenging for me who was trying to guide an oblivious three year old past the other children coming up the stairs without knocking anyone over!

Despite the cold and rain, it was a lovely venue for an outing. I would recommend returning on a sunny day though! Unfortunately I also need to tell you that you need to be careful of your cars, as sadly one of our cars was broken into while we were inside. One family did park inside, but I'm not sure if this option is open to a big group.

Our outing inspired some creativity in our home today. Michael created these hippos hiding behind the long grass with his playdough.

And later on we did some printing with different textures and made a collage of Rondevlei using cut outs from our printing. It was a long activity for Michael but it was very interesting to hear all that they could remember from the previous day.

This is Michael's vlei-the bird on the left is a pelican catching a fish. We used stencils to make the animals. Bubblewrap to print the water and corrugated cardboard for the reeds. Any extra animals that we didn't have a stencil for, Jenna drew onto previously dyed paper. I just love her hippo and snake. She had lots of fun creating this picture finding places for her turtle and pelican to hide.

At the end of the day I always ask the children to share with their Daddy what they have done during the day. Michael was very eager to tell his Daddy about his Rondevlei picture-he remembered the name and told daddy that mommy was very funny because she forgot to draw eyes on his snake!

In their own time....

From time to time I have moments of: Am I teaching my children the right things? Are they missing out on something? Should I be teaching more? Expecting more of them?

And then these type of things happen:

I was worried that I wasn't doing enough Maths with Jen. Or rather, that I'm not doing any Maths curriculum with her. We read books, discuss numbers if we see them, play games, talk about how we use numbers as they come up in our daily lives, but we've never sat down to formally DO maths.

We've always had magnetic numbers and letters on the fridge in our kitchen. She has used these in the past to build words and numbers. She's played with the numbers putting them in order and asked about the + - and = symbols too.

So the other day when she asked me again what the + was and I explained it to her saying it's plus, add on or when you get more and you use it to write number sentences when you're working out a sum.

She then proceeded to put together her own sum and work out the answer! WOW! You surprise me everyday little girl!

After playing with a few below 10 sums she then proceeded to make another one. This time it was a "difficult" one going over the 10 boundary. My immediate reaction was: Ooops, here comes a challenge too much for her! What will she do when she turns to me asking if it's right and I say no?

I tried to step in and help, but she stopped me: No mom, wait! Then turned around to work it out by counting on her fingers so I couldn't see her secret way of getting all her previous answers. And then.....

she did it!

I know it's not a page of sums. And it's a once off-she hasn't played with the magnets again-but it helps me not to be concerned about rushing out to buy those maths readiness books I was thinking of buying to ease my guilt of not doing enough in the maths area.... she still has a few more years to play dress up and explore her world ;-)

Sometimes we can take a little credit for the progress our children make. But there are times when I have very little part to play in new developments in my children's lives. Michael turned 3 in February. By 3 Jenna was out of nappies in the day and wanting desperately to be dry at night too. She was very eager to be a big girl wearing special big girl underwear. I thought that Michael would be the same but by 3 he was showing very little interest in the toilet or wearing those big boy underpants I'd bought him! That is until his sister offered to dress him one morning. She convinced him to put on his "panties" with ease and on we went with our day. In a blink of an eye he was using the toilet and wearing underwear! (Ok, there were a few accidents but not many)

Then to tackle the next milestone... dry nights. Once again I had no part to play in this one! I had had enough of wet beds and being woken at night by my little man when his nappy wasn't sufficient enough! Many a nights I asked the Lord to help me figure out how to stop the bed wetting WHEN he was wearing nappies! Aren't they supposed to keep them dry?!

Well, one night when I had left for exercise class and Ray was putting Michael to bed, he didn't want to put a nappy on. The next morning we had a dry bed!!! With that the nappies at night have gone and my prayers of when, have been answered.

Nothing gets done according to my plans around here! ;-) I'm learning that things will happen, if I wait patiently, in His timing for them!

Scratch Patch.

On our latest trip to Simon's Town we visited Scratch Patch-Mineral World. We had been there before when the children were very small but hadn't been into the factory section as Jenna was very sensitive to loud noises then. Now that she understands more about her world and her own body she doesn't become as afraid of new noises in new environments. When you enter the factory section it is very loud because it is filled with different types of drums all completing a special part of the process of getting the stones prepared for sale.

Both Michael and Jenna put their hands to their ears and stood close by my side until they felt comfortable to move on without their special "protection". So I stood by patiently waiting for them to move on. When they were ready the first thing that they both noticed were the cogs which were turning the drums. They've had a fascination with cogs lately because they've been playing with dad's old lego and discovering what cogs do-here they got to see the real ones in action! (I love how the Lord brings little learning moments together like this!)

These are the polishing drums. They rotate at different times according to the type of stone inside and how "roughly" they can be handled.

Here they are washing the stones.

Inside a drum-I just love the colours-you probably can't quite get the same effect as we did, but when the stones are in water they shine even more.

After being washed and polished the stones are then sorted into different sizes. Here they are on a conveyor belt in sawdust, about to enter the sorting tunnel.

We had a little lesson in size and sorting here. As the stones move along the tunnel they fall into different barrels according to their size. Jen and I discussed how this was happening. After a while she figured out that the holes in the tunnel get bigger as you get further down the tunnel, thus letting the stones out according to their appropriate size. Great practical maths lesson!

After all that learning Michael said he'd had enough of the noise so we headed on to the shop. Here you can find examples of all the stones for sale. Some are fashioned into statues or ornaments. Others are just left in their natural state. And still others are polished to look all shiny and sparkly!

Jenna loved these Titanium Quartz stones-what can I say she's a girl who loves sparkly pretty things!

And Michael was impressed by these shark teeth. They are fossil teeth found in the seas in Morocco. Apparently they were ancestors of the Great White Shark.

And then we headed on to the real reason for visiting Scratch Patch! The HUGE patch of stones, found in a cave like setting with a waterfall and all, was like a treasure hunt all on it's own! We got a small bag each to fill with stones and spent some time exploring all the nooks and crannies where some stones were hiding.

Be warned though, if you go to visit you may need to pack in a new set of clothes. It can get very slippery climbing over the rocks.

Jenna loves rocks. She has an uncanny knack for finding rocks which are heart shaped. She has a little collection on her bookshelf at home. Well, she even managed to find a heart stone in the midst of all those gems! Can you see it in the right top corner?

Michael on the other hand decided to be quite selective and only went for green and orange stones. What was I to expect from my little man who knows exactly what he wants in life and determindly pursues his goals?!

The simple pleasures in life appeal to him! Here's my little gem among the gems!

Jenna discovered more interesting rocks-this is fossilized wood. Another great learning moment. Jen has been very interested in dinosaurs and fossils lately so this is why these rocks appealed to her.

And of course when mommy got home she had to do the teacher thing and I asked them to match up their little treasures to the gem stone chart we bought. Not as easy as it seems actually!

All in all we had a great time at Scratch Patch and MY little treasures learnt a lot of new information in a relaxed enjoyable manner.

Learning and living with our home school community.

At the beginning of the year I felt that I needed to step back for a while from organising activities for our co-op group and co-ordinating park days. So I handed over these duties to a very organised and creative mommy, who is doing a great job of keeping us all connected. It has been a blessing to watch as other moms have gotten involved more. And it has given opportunities for us to get to know one another even more as each mom has taken a turn to organise a co-op lesson.

This year we started off with a clay lesson. After listening to a story the children were encouraged to create something from the story with clay. They added a little sparkle with beads.

Jenna's clay canoe

Next we learnt about different seeds and what fruit they belonged to,

along with how plants need water to grow.

Just before Easter one of the mommy's was very creative and planned a whole morning of easter craft activities. The children made hot-cross buns, decorated eggs, completed an egg and spoon obstacle course and were entertained by a puppet show.

Michael's hand painted easter egg

Jenna's easter egg-this was wrapped with an elastic and had stickers stuck on it before putting it into food colouring dye. Afterwards all the "add-ons" were removed.

After decorating the easter eggs at co-op I thought our Easter tree looked a little bare with only four eggs hanging on it so the children and I made these little chicks in Fabergé eggs. I thought I was being quite daring attempting such a fiddly activity with Michael-but he loved it! He managed to complete the whole activity without loosing his concentration.

Michael's Fabergé egg

On a rainy Monday morning all the families gathered together for a music lesson which was presented by a music teacher from a Waldorf school. Her gentle singing, interesting musical instruments and flowing movement activities was just what the children needed on a rainy day.

Even the moms had a chance to learn some lullaby type songs while the children took advantage of a break in the rain to get outdoors and play with one another.

Unfortunately I don't always remember to take my camera along so I don't have a photo of our baking co-op :-( The children worked in groups to read, measure and mix their dough. And then they made their own wheat free, dairy free, yeast free and preservative free pizzas! Yes, we're even learning about how other's need to adapt their diets to cope with allergies.

I find that the co-op sessions generally inspire me to be more creative with my children. I learn from the other moms how they teach and it is exposing our children to many different new concepts too. This means that I'm learning more about Jenna and Michael and their interests and talents.

We only meet every second week for our co-ops as we felt it was still important to continue with the park days. On these days we get to meet with other families who aren't part of our co-op group. It has been good to see friendships form between the children and between the moms too. There's a core group of families who come along every time but most of the time there is at least one new family who joins us. The group has really grown-I think we're up to about 18 families on the mailing list now! There is even another co-op group which has been started.

It is amazing to see so many families coming along to spend time with one another. Even if someone just visits with us once I'm always amazed at how the Lord can use this time as a time for encouraging us moms. I'm always reminded on these days of how each family is different, we all interact differently and learn differently

BUT the Lord can use each and every single one of us to build each other up.

So if you're ever in the area on a Tuesday afternoon come along and join us on Noordhoek Common-there's lots of space to run around and it's fun for everyone!